Art of edge-finishing



G. l, GORSUCH.

ART OF EDGE FINISHING. I APPLICATION FILED JULY 10; 1919.

1 3?% 6@6 Patented Mar. 29, 19211,

UNITED GEORGE J. GORSUCH, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION 035 NEW JERSEY.

sraeee.

Specification of Letters Patent.

ART OF EDGE-FINISHING.

Patented Mar 29, 19211.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE J. GoRsUoH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in the Art of Edge-Finishing, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates toa method of finishing the edge of a piece of sheet material and to the article produced by the method, and is herein illustrated as embodied in a method of finishing the edge of a piece of upper leather and in the finished leather article.

In the manufacture of boots and shoes it has been customary to skive certain pieces of the uppers along the margin on the flesh side, or that side which is to be concealed in the finished shoe, and then to fold the margin of the grain or display side over upon it so that those edges of the pieces which have been thus treated may present a surface like that of the grain or dis'play'side. Between the skiving and folding operations the skived margin is cemented, so that three operations are required to produce the folded edge.

The present invention contem lates doing away with the cementing and fo ding operations entirely and in most cases also with the skiving operation.

In carrying out the present invention the stock is engaged at two series of points remote from the display side of'the material and-the two series are drawn toward each other to curl the display side toward the other side so that the curled margin of the display side forms the edge of the material. This may be accomplished by inserting in a piece of material such as leather, a series of stitches each extending from a point on the flesh side, or that side which is to be concealed in the finished shoe, to a point on the raw edge and drawing the stitches tight to cause the margin of the grain or display side to be curled or bent approximately ninety degrees toward the flesh or concealed side. Such a procedure not only eliminates the skiving, cementing and folding operations but effects a considerable saving in leather due to the omission of the skivingand folding operations as well as producing an article having a firm edge which presents a grain surface. With heavy upper leather it may be desirable to make a scarf preparatory to inserting the stitches but in such case the scarf may be very short and steep, so that practically no stock need be wasted.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings,

Figure l is a perspective of a portion of a part of an upper of a shoe in process of havlng its edge finished by the method of the present invention, and

Fig. 2 is a perspective of a portion of a shoe upper, one part of which has been produced in accordance with the method and stitched to another part of the upper, both figures being upon an enlarged scale to show the invention more clearly.

The parts of shoe uppers are cut from skins either by a clicking press and dies or by the use of patterns and a hand knife. In either case the parts have two sides, the flesh and the grain lying, in substantially parallel planes, and raw edges, the planes of which are substantially at right angles to those of the sides. A portion of part of a shoe upper, which may for example be a tip, is shown by itself in Fig. 1, and in Fig. 2 attached to another shoe part 3 which may for example be a vamp. The fiesh side. 5 of the tip is uppermost in Fig. 1 and the grain side 7 is uppermost in Fig. 2, a raw edge beingindicated in Fig. 1 at 9.

According to the present invention a se ries of stitches 11 is inserted progressively in the margin 'of the tip, which are blind or concealed when the tip is viewed from the grain or display side; and these stitches are progressively tightened to cause the margin of the grain side to curl or bend toward the flesh side so that, whereas the original edge 9 was a raw edge, the finished edge 13 presents a grain surface. According to the manner in which the invention has been illustrated, the stitches extend from a series of points 15 on the flesh side 5 to a series of points 17 on the raw edge 9 nearits junction with the grain side 7 in such manner that lines drawn respectively through the two series of points would be substantially parallel before, as well as after, the tightening of the stitches. The stitches are inserted and drawn tight in the manner shown, the effect being to draw a part of the raw edge 9 up substantially into the plane of the flesh side and to contract the leather which is located between the series of points 15 and 17 After the edge has been finished in the manner which has been described above, the tip is attached to the vamp by the usual stitches 19.

It should be noted that this method of finishing an edge not only results in the saving of labor and stock, which has been referred to, but produces an edge 13 which is very firmly held in place and is not liable to lift up when the attaching stitches 19 are tightened. Usually the grain side of a piece of leather is the display side or finished side but with certain leathers, such as ooze, the reverse is true, the leather being finished to display the flesh side; and with such special leathers the curling of the margin would, of course, be caused to take place in the opposite direction from that shown. In the drawing the raw edge 9 is substantially perpendicular to the planes of the sides of the leather, no preliminary skiving having been done. As has been stated above, it may be desirable'when a very heavy piece of leather is to be operated upon to skive the margin slightly on the flesh side so as to remove more or less of the corner formed by the junction of the flesh side with the raw edge, this being the corner beneath which the needle 21 is shown as extending in Fig. 1. When the stitches 11 are tightened, this corner material is contracted; and with a piece of heavy upper leather a suflicient amount of contraction to produce the desired curling of the display side might be ditficult to produce in which case the skiving referred to would facilitate the edge finishing operation.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is: i

1. That improvement in the art of finishing the edge of a piece of sheet material which consists in engaging the material at two series of points, one series being located on one side of the leather and the other series being located in the edge, and drawing the last-named series toward the firstnamed series.

2. That improvement in the art of finishing the edge of a piece of leather which consists in engaging the leather at a series of separated points adjacent to the edge on the unfinished side and at a series of separated points in the edge and drawing the last-named series toward the first-named series to cause the finished side of the leather to curl toward the unfinished side.

3. That improvement in the art of finishing the edge of a piece of sheet material which consists in inserting in the margin of the material a series of stitches which are concealed when the material is viewed from the display side and drawing the stitches tight to cause the display side of the mate rial to curl toward the other side.

4. That improvement in the art of finishing the edge of a piece of leather which consists in inserting in the margin of the leather a series of stitches which are concealed when the leather is viewed from the grain side and then drawing the stitches tight to cause the grain side to curl toward the flesh side. 7

5. That improvement in the art offinishing the edge of a piece of leather which consists in inserting in the leather a series of stitches each extending from a point on the unfinished side spaced from the edge to a point in the edge and putting tension on the stitches sufficient to curl the finished side,

toward the unfinished side.

6. That improvement in the art of finishing the edge of a piece of leather which consists in inserting in the leather a series of stitches, each extending from a point on one side spaced from the edge to a point in the edge between said side and the other side and putting tension on the stitches sufiicient to curl the last-named side toward the first-named side.

7. That improvement in the art of finishing the edge of a piece of leather which consists in inserting progressively in the leather a series of stitches each extending from a point on one side spaced from the edge to a point in the edge between said side and the other side and putting tension progressively on the stitches suflicient to curl th; last-named side toward the first-named s1 e.

8. That improvementin the artof finishing the edge of a piece of leatherhaving a flesh side, a grain side and a raw edge the plane of which is at an angle to the planes of the sides which consists in inserting in the flesh side and the edge a series of stitches and tightening the stitches until the margin of the grain side is pulledover into a plane substantially parallel to that originally occupied by the raw edge.

9. A piece of sheet material having the margin of one side pulled over toward the other side and held in position by stitches contained entirely in one layer of the material and invisible from the first-named side.

10. A piece of leather having the margin of the display side pulled over toward the other side so as to present an edge having a surface like that of the display side and held in position by stitches contained entirely in one layer of the leather and invisible from the display side.

11. A piece of leather having the raw edge thereof pulled over substantially into the plane of the flesh side and held in position by stitches invisible from the grain side.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

GEORGE J. GORSUCH. 

